60-40, 50-50, framing extra or included, advertising costs split or not – these are just a few examples of decisions many artists have to make on a regular basis in their dealings with galleries. Although the artist-gallery relationship is meant to be a partnership, it often doesn’t feel like one because of two opposing views.

  • One view is the “artist-centred view”: without an artist’s work there’d be no successful gallery.
  • The other view is the “gallery-centred view”: without galleries there’d be no successful artists.

With each view come expectations that, if unfulfilled, will cloud a balanced partnership between artists and galleries; and the commission structure is perhaps the most prominent one as it’s not about art but about money. Let’s therefore take a closer look.

When artists choose to be represented by a gallery, they decide to give up some of their income in return for the promise of access to a wider audience with the view of increased sales and reputation. For galleries to deliver on such promise, they need to build and maintain a wide network of contacts and connections with buyers, private collectors, public institutions, and curators. Galleries need to move actively in the art market to understand the forces at play, identify trends and new technologies in order to position their artists appropriately.

For example, good galleries spend a lot of their time and resources with current and prospective buyers. It’s not enough to think an exhibition opening will sell the works. Art buyers are busy professional people and the gallery needs to go to them rather expect the buyers to come to the gallery. Paintings don’t sell themselves; they need to be sold. Hence the need for gallery staff who is able to

  • communicate with clients by phone, email, or face-to-face every day;
  • evaluate and participate in art fairs;
  • use the latest technology (such as Augmented Reality and digital catalogues) to offer clients new and innovative ways to view and access works outside the four gallery walls;
  • maintain and feed the gallery’s website and social media channels;
  • contact and build relationships with public institutions;
  • liaise with and feed back to the artists.

Once a work is sold, shipping needs to be organised, the work needs to be insured, sometimes perhaps also installed. If a gallery still maintains a bricks-and-mortar space, the more prestigious the location, the higher the monthly rent. This cost centre (apart from staffing costs) is often the highest fixed costs of a gallery.

By the way, more and more galleries cannot afford those high rents in inner cities or popular shopping areas any longer. In order to avoid having to close down, galleries move from ground floor level to first, second or higher floors. Some relocate their business to a less expensive area on the fringes, team up with other galleries to share the rental costs, or turn their gallery into a project space.

So to summarise, an artist paying a commission is employing the gallery to work for this artist. Only very successful independent artists can afford to have their own assistant, marketing and business managers who exclusively work for them. The majority of artists get access to such staff through their galleries. One way to look at it: the group of artists represented by a gallery split the costs for marketing and management support between themselves through their respective commission payments to that gallery.

With this in mind, artists should not be afraid to ask the right questions when discussing representation: how will a gallery build my profile, how do you contact clients, which sales channels other than an opening do you use, what’s your approach to using new technologies for sales, etc. From a gallery’s answers to these questions, an artist can judge whether the gallery commission in question is appropriate or not. In simple terms, 40% or 50% just for gallery openings with nothing else is perhaps not such a good deal.

Image: Karen Zadra.